With a little luck and an open mind, curb-side finds can be true treasures

Cathy Layman | Times PhotoTimes reporter Pati LaLonde finds treasures among the trash left at the curb in Essexville. She usually looks for items she can use in her garden, like this planter.

My neighbors throw away some pretty cool stuff - things like an arbor, a wicker love seat, a metal table with working casters, and my personal favorite, the Virgin Mary.

My neighbors also are very accommodating. The arbor was delivered to my yard. Hey, I was late for church. As was the Virgin Mary. It is too heavy for me to lift. However, the deliverer put his foot down when I couldn't figure out where to put it. He left it with the promise of coming back when I made up my mind.

That arbor now supports a mango honeysuckle, the love seat is a comfy place to sit on my deck and the table puts my grill at just the right height. And, yes, the Virgin Mary found a home in one of my flower beds. She's now surrounded by iris, aster, chrysanthemum and columbine.

Cathy Layman | Times PhotoAmongst discarded toys and other refuse, LaLonde selects a flag and a wooden rack for her porch.

My more recent finds include shutters for my house and a metal plant hanger that holds four plants.

I admit it, I'm a trash picker. I generally find these treasures while I'm out walking my dog. Hence, all my finds so far come from a two-mile area around my house and the alley behind The Times.

My first pick was a tea table from the alley. Now spray-painted lavender, it holds fresh flowers and other little tchotchkes on my deck during the summer.

In fact, all my finds, except the Virgin, have been given a new lease on life with a can of spray paint.

Take for example the wicker love seat. I bought two cans of spray paint at about $3 each at Home Depot and found a cushion for a couple of bucks at Goodwill. Where else can you find a wicker love seat for around $8?

While I do find some great items, I'm a picky picker. I won't Dumpster dive, and I won't go through trash bags. The item has to be by the side of the road and in reasonably good condition. I also have to have some idea what I'm going to do with it before I pick it up.

TRASH-PICKING ETIQUETTE:

1. Don't make a mess. In other words, once you're done rummaging, make sure things are back in the order in which you found them. Those who attend rummage sales, take note.

2. If you take something, take it all. Don't just disassemble a piece, take what you want and leave the rest for someone else to clean up.

3. If you pick something up, it's yours. This isn't the mall - there are no returns when it comes to trash-picking. If it doesn't work out, put in your own trash. An acquaintance of mine put out a lawnmower for trash pick-up day. Someone else took it home and returned it the next day with a nasty note stating the lawnmower didn't work. Hey, this is trash, folks. If it wasn't in good working condition, chances are it wouldn't be at the curb.

4. If something looks too good to be trash, it's best to ask before picking it up. A homeowner might have set something aside for a moment with no intention of throwing it away.

This held true when a colleague of mine was up on a ladder painting windows. He had taken off the outer windows and propped them against a tree. When he looked down he saw a picker loading the windows into a car.

5. Know what's fair game. There is no law against trash-picking. A spokesman with the Bay City Police Department says it is not illegal to pick up items set out with the trash. However, if you remove an item from a garage, a backyard, a construction site or a cemetery, that's not picking; it's stealing.

Trash-picking from the neighbors has its limitations. They don't throw out good stuff every week.

When a friend suggested I broaden my horizons and search other parts of the city, and write a story about my trash-picking exploits, I thought: why not?

With Times photographer Cathy Layman in tow, I headed out to Essexville a couple days after this spring's citywide rummage sale.

Although Cathy has never picked trash in her life, she jumped in with both feet, urging me to stop the car when she spotted something she could use.

Her big find was a few empty milk jugs to cover her vegetable plants and staircase balusters to use as fence posts to keep the rabbits from her budding plants.

While I wasn't thrilled at what we found - I'm always looking for wicker - I did manage to pick up a few more things for my garden.

I found a stool that will be painted a cheery color and will hold a plant. Actually, it already is holding a bucket of purple and red supertunias; it just needs to be painted. I also found a great wooden basket that is destined to hold something on my deck, maybe a little American flag and a plastic hanging pot.

I also found some wooden fencing, but it was too big to put in the car. It would have been perfect leaning up against my existing fence with bird houses and other doodads hanging from it.

All in all, not a bad haul for two people who set out to find things.

As Cathy points out, trash picking is serendipitous. The best things are those you stumble across, such as the find of the day - a child's toy bench in good condition, which I found on my way home from work.

While all of this sounds easy, no story of treasure hunting is complete without talking about the items that got away. For me, it was two wicker chairs in good condition that wouldn't fit into my car.

I've remedied that situation by purchasing an SUV. Next time I see wicker, it's mine.